KEARNEY BRINGS CATHOLIC MISSION TO LIFE WITH PROJECT-BASED LEARNING IN STEM WING

Bishop Kearney has partnered with Basecamp School for the implementation of the STEM Wing into our curriculum. Basecamp School exists to help schools deepen their mission through innovation. Christian Talbot, founder of Basecamp School, has been working with our faculty since the spring.

Recently, Bishop Kearney was profiled on the Basecamp blog. Below are excerpts:

In the age of exponential change and entrenched competition, how does a traditional, all-girls Catholic school in a working class section of Brooklyn find a way forward? One often overlooked innovation strategy - leapfrogging. They are in the midst of leapfrogging to a FabLab/ Virtual Reality Lab with an emphasis on life sciences.

Lots of schools have a FabLab. By itself, a FabLab is a facilities upgrade--a commodity.

Very few schools have VR labs, but even the ones that do struggle with using them to design meaningful learning. The absence of mission-driven learning results, once again, in a commoditized facilities upgrade.

By contrast, the innovation that Kearney is offering--a Catholic education for an age of exponential change--cannot be commodified. By starting with Mission, Kearney has provided the fuel for their innovation journey. And by focusing on Vision, they have identified a North Star (Thursday's post will address identifying an "innovation North Star"). As their Culture continues to align with that Vision, they will find themselves completing their leapfrog moment.